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	Alleged Sex Abuse Victims Sue Kansas City Diocese By Toriano L. Porter The Examiner December 21, 2007 http://www.examiner.net/stories/122107/new_227636103.shtml Two victims of alleged sex abuse by a former Roman Catholic priest have filed lawsuits against the priest and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph alleging that the priest sexually abused them when they were altar boys. John Doe B.B. of Kansas, 52, claims that the Rev. Thomas Reardon abused him in 1968 in the St. Elizabeth rectory in south Kansas City. The alleged victim was 12 years old at the time. John Doe M.D. of Missouri, 46, claims Reardon abused him at St. Gabriel's the Archangel parish in North Kansas City when he was in the fifth grade. The abuse continued until the victim was in the eighth grade, the suit alleges. Sources close to the case said one victim came forward just weeks ago, the other months ago. Reardon, who has 14 other such lawsuits pending against him in Jackson County, has denied the allegations. In a statement released by the Diocese, spokesperson Rebecca Summers said the Diocese had only recently learned that two civil lawsuits have been filed in Jackson County Circuit Court by the two Does. "At this time, the diocese has not seen the suits and cannot respond to the specifics of the allegations," the statement read. Reardon, 65, was ordained in 1967 and served at St. Elizabeth's parish from 1968 to 1971, followed by St. John Francis Regis from 1972 to 1973, then Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception from 1974 to 1977. He was at Church of the Santa Fe in Buckner in 1978, then St. Gabriel the Archangel from 1979 to 1981, then back at Regis from 1982 until 1989. Reardon left active ministry in April 1989, when his faculties were withdrawn by former Bishop John J. Sullivan. Since that time, Reardon has never functioned in any ministerial capacity for the diocese, the statement read.
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